CBP Making Improvements to C-TPAT, Including Cost-Benefit Data, Agency Official Says

AUSTIN, Texas -- CBP will soon deploy several improvements to its Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program, including clearer questions on C-TPAT questionnaires and a return to a relationship-based approach between C-TPAT specialists and the companies they validate, said Liz Schmelzinger, director of C-TPAT at CBP, at the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference on June 22. The agency is also working to fix problems with its cost-benefit data on C-TPAT membership detailed in a recent Government Accountability Office report, she said.

The GAO report, issued in February, found CBP is unable to determine the extent to which program members receive benefits due to inaccurate data, and can’t be sure C-TPAT participants are getting their promised benefits at all (see 1702080061). Schmelzinger said she agrees “with everything that’s in that report,” and has launched a mode-by-mode cost-benefit analysis to update outdated program data. “I want you guys to know, exactly, ‘this is why we need to be in this program and this is the money we save,’” she said.

Reconfigured C-TPAT questionnaires should be released at the end of July, Schmelzinger said. Current security profile questions were “ridiculous,” and redundant, and often had grammatical issues, she said. For now, participants should continue to use the old questionnaires. “Just work on the questions as you do now, but when the new ones come out and you get notified they’ll make more sense to you,” she said.

Improvements in how CBP C-TPAT specialists are deployed should take longer, but were included in this year’s CBP work plan, Schmelzinger said. The agency would like to return back to the days of when C-TPAT specialists truly understood the entire supply chain of the company after repeated visits, but it “will take several years to get us there,” she said. CBP had gotten away from that model after budget woes raised sensitivity to agency travel costs. C-TPAT specialists are “very supportive” of the return to the old ways, she said. They’re much more comfortable knowing a company from “stem to stern.”

CBP’s Trusted Trader pilot continues, with its participants engaging in biweekly conference calls and testing the program’s anticipated benefits, said Diane DeJarnett of Toyota. Beyond the benefits listed in CBP’s 2014 notice announcing the pilot, the agency is still soliciting input on other benefits that could be provided, including those involving partner government agencies, she said. Discussing Toyota’s experience with the pilot, DeJarnett said the initial application review meeting was “very friendly” and only took one day. But though the “mini audit” went smoothly, CBP does need to work on how long it took to get through the application review process, with the agency taking a year to get through the applications of the nine pilot applicants, she said.

Once Trusted Trader does go live, Importer Security Assessment members will be automatically transitioned into the program, DeJarnett said. C-TPAT participants will have the option of joining, and may find the additional incentives of Trusted Trader cause them to overcome their previous hesitation of applying for ISA, she said. Alternatively, C-TPAT members may remain as participants in C-TPAT only, satisfying that program’s supply chain security requirements while remaining outside of Trusted Trader’s additional trade compliance role, she said.